Lit List Short Reviews: Authenticity: Poems by Lesley Day; Wolf Weather by Miles Watson; Reflections in My Magical Mirror: Lessons of Love from the School of Life by Ivan Figueroa-Otero, M.D.; Jane Austen's Totally Unexpected New York Adventure by Robin Robby; Abraham Lincoln Tribute: His Life and Legacy by Zaki J. Doudak
Authenticity: Poems by Lesley Day
Lesley Day's book of poems, Authenticity, explores many emotions like depression, grief, loneliness, fear, and solitude. She captures them all with raw, naked, and honest confessional poems that dare the Reader to feel what the Speaker is feeling.
From the first poem, "Nothing More Than A Prick," Day reveals her ability to capture those feelings through life changing moments. The Speaker reads through diary entries from when she was younger. The entries are from a 14 year old's perspective revealing her first experience with what she perceived as heartbreak.
The Speaker mocks her naivete and realizes that as an adult, she has experienced real loss and heartbreak.Day writes, "Who knew the flowing streams of tears, in reality, were only puddles?/Who knew the stones that weighed me down were only tiny pebbles?/Who knew I would one day envy feeling so strongly over something so trivial?" Now that she felt real sadness as an adult, the Speaker realizes that what she felt as a teenager was a mild mere pinprick compared to how she feels now.
Many of Day's poems deal with specific moments that cause great stress and grief and elicit strong emotional responses. The poem, "I've Been Here Before" deals with The Speaker's lover's suicide. Day transitions the lover's point of view from second to third person. In doing so, she wants to compartmentalize his troubled symptoms and the rest of his personality.
In one stanza, she says that "he" aimed a gun at her head. Then she changes perspective by saying, "Now I know that wasn't you/And I'm not saying that's what I think you'll do/But/Eyes,looks, tone of voice, and the rambles of a mind that is temporarily not your own/Triggers something inside/I see it flash before my eyes/Only this time?/He's not in my line of sight/It's you.." She wants to believe that the person with the gun, the one who ended his life, was a different person than the one that she fell in love with. She knows however that they were one and the same. The Speaker is struggling with her own complex feelings of guilt and blame over his death.
Day's poems reveal the various symptoms of depression and grief and how they affect those who have to endure them. "She Comes at Night" explores one of the Speaker's"enemies": insomnia. Day personifies insomnia as a clever enemy, something that sneaks into the Speaker's thoughts, races like a train, keeps her awake, and inspires her. The Speaker knows that this is unhealthy and the energy that insomnia temporarily gives her tapers off. Day writes, "Thoughts are no longer clever, and they make less and less sense/As the days drag on/My mind is foggy and overworked/I'm drowning, as I grasp for sleep/I'm sinking/Waiting for unconsciousness to save me."
The Speaker's battle with insomnia is an ongoing struggle in which she keeps fighting for her mind's sake.As many who have Depression can tell, it's not always dealt with or expressed in the same way. Some people take to their beds and can barely move. Others try their best to hide it. "Functional" describes someone who hides her depression behind function. The Speaker goes out, works, and interacts with others. Many would believe that she doesn't have it. She even tells herself that she's fine, but knows that it's there. She lies to herself until she no longer can. She refers to her depression as "controlled claustrophobia." "You know it's there," Day writes. "You recognize its presence/You feel the itch of panic tingle its skin/But you will yourself to breathe/And tell yourself that you will be okay/You don't allow yourself to scratch the itch/Because it will only make it spread."
Besides being functional,The Speaker describes her depression as a "sometimes " thing. She doesn't always have the symptoms, but when she does, they hit hard. Perhaps The Speaker's depression is so powerful because she doesn't always feel that way. If depression was always there, perhaps it could recede into dullness whereas when it comes and goes, it comes on sharp, fast, and painful.
While Day's poems can seem bleak, they also present ways of coping with stress and depression. The poem, "Quiet in the Spaces," gives the Speaker the comfort of solitude. It says, "I don't enjoy the rush of life/Not rush as an emotion/But rush as in not enough time/You see/I need time/I need it to savor the quiet moments/The ones found in the spaces/Between the significance of a day." Day reminds the Reader that sometimes the most chaotic minds need those quiet times and safe spaces to reflect and just be.
Another positive coping mechanism can be found through reading and writing. In "Addiction to Lines," the Speaker reveals her addiction to "blank journals." With those journals, she can share her thoughts, express herself, and confide her troubles like a friend. The poem says, "They sit in a pile at my shelf/And when I look at the different colors melding together, I feel safe/Their silent presence is comforting/I'm no longer anxious about running out of lines/I feel confident that there will be enough for my thoughts to sleep." The Speaker is able to put her thoughts and emotions into her journals so they can provide some comfort and even control over them.
The book, Authenticity, puts emotions, especially the hardest ones to feel,together to create a whole soul. The poem, "Painted Colors" compares the soul to a painting that displays the various colors of emotions. Each one is painted in, carefully and precisely. It's an ongoing process which changes each time. The poem says, "Strokes of color do not come easy/Nor do they come quickly/But all it takes/Is one small blink/To paint black over all the colors/And drench this soul in darkness." This poem reveals what's inside the mind and soul of a person with depression. There will always be a bit of black inside them that will never truly disappear and can sometimes feel overpowering. However, that's not all there is. There are other colors, other emotions, that surround the soul and make it complete and authentic.
Wolf Weather by Miles Watson
Miles Watson's latest short work is a chilling atmospheric Dark Fantasy Horror that shows that there can be much to be feared in the cold woods during winter.
Crowning, a soldier of the Empire's Legion. Since Dagamin the Restless obtained the throne after conflicts between warring kingdoms. Dagamin decided to expand his kingdom far into the North. There isn't anything out there but wolves, he insists.
Unfortunately, they aren't just any wolves as the human-like howling and the wolves walking around on hind legs can attest. Then Crowning's fellow Legionnaires keep disappearing and the wolves' numbers increase.
Wolf Weather is not long, only 62 pages, but like Watson's other works like The Numbers Game, The Devils You Know, and Deus Ex, he is an expert at capturing a really tense moment with plenty of atmosphere and not a lot of exposition. Aside from the bit of information about the preceding wars, and the current empire, we aren't told much about the political climate. We get some implications especially towards the end that all may not be well in this empire and that's all we need.
This is told from the point of view of Crowning, a Legion soldier, the type who follows orders. He doesn't see anything wrong with the Empire until he is faced with the possibility that encroaching on other lands might not be a good idea especially when the locals are not happy about it.
The book is filled with descriptions that highlight the tension and isolation that Crowning feels during this story. The North seems cut off from the rest of the world because of the cold snowy landscape. Even when he is with the Legionnaires, there is a feeling of loneliness and despair. It gets worse as the other soldiers disappear and Corwin is literally and metaphorically cut off from everyone and everything that he knows.
One of the more interesting aspects is how Wilson writes werewolves. Their links between their human and animalistic natures are revealed and actually are even balanced. In most werewolf tales, the human side is not in control, usually not remembering or regretting their actions. Here the werewolves know what they are doing and why. It is almost seen as a reclamation between humans and nature that these half-human half-wolves have accepted their wild natural side and live their lives away from the structured human world.
Corwin's encounter with the werewolves changes his outlook. He struggles to retain his humanity and his identity as a Legionnaire. However, his encounter with the werewolves causes him to question his loyalty, his placement in society, his own natural instincts, and the Emperor's ambitions. It culminates in a climax when Corwin has to face the truth of who he really is and what he really wants.
Wolf Weather is a short work but an interesting one with great atmosphere, characterization, and an interesting outlook at magical creatures who have been sidelined long enough.
Spirituality 104: Reflections in My Magical Mirror Lessons of Love from the School of Life by Ivan Figueroa-Otero, M.D.
I haven't read the other books in Ivan Figueroa-Otero's School of Life books so that would probably make his book, Spirituality 104: Reflections in My Magical Mirror Lessons of Love from the School of Life more comprehensive and expansive. However, Reflections in My Magical Mirror, is a short book that captures various lessons and advice from the previous books. Without the other books, the chapters are very thin and shallow with the content.
However they are also helpful and easily digestible if the Reader wants to read an uplifting quick chapter that reflects a problem that they are going through.
Each chapter is the same. It begins with a quote from one of the previous School of Life Books. Then Figueroa-Otero continues with an interpretation of the quote from a spiritual perspective. Finally, he offers an exercise based on the quote in the chapter. It's formulaic but easy for Readers to determine which chapter may fit their particular situation.
For example Chapter 15 focuses on the quote: "We are like rivers that always flows (sic) to God's greatest ocean of love." Figueroa-Otero then compares the quotation to holograms where an original image can be replicated by its parts. The information is stored into each part to create the whole image, so each part makes a whole.
He also uses natural imagery to articulate the quote. With the one mentioned in Chapter 15, Figueroa-Otero compares us, humanity, to individual rivers flowing into the great ocean of the Universe. We are not separated. What affects our individual rivers affects the ocean and vice versa.
The exercise encourages the Reader to visualize love flowing through them like water from a river into an ocean. It is designed to remind us that we are a small part of the universe and that we should share our love with those around us.
Reflections in a Magical Mirror is slanted towards a more Biblical perspective. Figueroa-Otero uses quotes from the Bible such as "Whatever you did for my brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). However, the emphasis is not on Christian Salvation, so much as it is on helping others and being kind. It is easy to replace the Christian rhetoric with any other spiritual path that talks about kindness, generosity, love, selflessness, and feeling spiritually centered.
Reflections in My Magical Mirror is not a long book but it is one that is very helpful when you want a few minutes to clear your mind and fill your spirit.
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Jane Austen's Totally Unexpected New York Adventure by Robin Robby
Robin Robby's novellette, Jane Austen's Totally Unexpected New York Adventure is a humorous and slightly romantic science fiction in which Jane Austen takes a trip to the future.
In 2061, New York, Fred, his friend, David, and fiancee, Clara have access to a time machine. So where to go? Well Clara is a huge Jane Austen fan having read her books several times and played Marianne Dashwood in a stage production of Sense and Sensibility. So for Clara meeting Jane Austen would be like meeting a favorite rock star. Plus, she died in 1817 at the age of 41 of either Addison's Disease or Hodgkin's Lymphoma. So the trio decided to dress in their Regency best and meet Austen at her home as she is beginning her final novel Persuasion, take her to the future where she can be treated with modern medicine, and return her to live a full productive life. Unfortunately, they don't count on Austen's overwhelming curiosity for this new futuristic world or Fred's growing affection for a certain English Regency era novelist.
The highlight of this Sci Fi Rom Com is Austen herself. She stands out from everyone else with her much more elevated speech patterns. When they ask her about her health, Austen replies "If I had not been suffering from such an annoying back pain, yes, I would turn back and bid you good day. But you have gauged my curiosity to no end. Whatever ends the pain."
In fact her manner of speech stands out that when others, particularly Carla, emulate her speech, it intentionally seems fake. They are playing a role while Austen lives it.
Among the more delightful moments are when Austen observes the future. She is like an amazed child on their first Christmas morning. The lights, the people, and the modern buildings. No wonder she is "quite intoxicated." She is also amazed at the sociopolitical change of women in occupations that weren't dreamt of in her day, such as doctors, attorneys, and academics. Even Austen herself had to take credit for her own books as "A Lady." She is amazed and flattered that people from the future would know and admire her so much that they would want to see her (after she recovers from the initial shock that people from the future could travel to the past in the first place). She knows that her life was not in vain and that her "sketches" will be remembered.
It is her amazement and spirit that attracts Fred. At first he is cynical but willing to go along with the trip to impress Clara and one up David who built the machine. (In fact, he gets tired of David bragging about building the machine). The more time he spends with Austen, the more he sees someone who hides a rebellious nature behind a prim exterior. One who uses her works to satirize and ask direct questions about relationships hidden under convention. One who now sees those imaginative efforts and her legacy pay off. One who observes human nature and is able to put those observations into her works, especially her final finished posthumous work, Persuasion.
Jane Austen's Totally Unexpected New York Adventure is not just a fun time travel story. It's a love letter to an author who inspired and moved many.
Zaki J. Doudak's Abraham Lincoln Tribute His Life and Legacy is not a dry account of Lincoln's life complete with important events and timelines. Instead, it is more of an inspirational tribute about why Lincoln's legacy is still so important and what it means for people today.
The book begins with two important quotations during Lincoln's political career, portions of The Gettysburg Address and quotes from his debate with Stephen Douglas. It also includes a chapter about Mary Todd Lincoln's life after her husband and son's deaths including her interest in Spiritualism and struggles with mental illness. The final third is an opinion essay by Doudak which explains the importance of Lincoln's legacy and its meaning in subsequent times when racism and division is still very much alive.
Lincoln's words have been repeated often but this book gathers some of the most stirring. Quotes like "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled (at Gettysburg) have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little know nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here" remind us why Lincoln was known as a master orator. In giving this address, Lincoln takes attention away from himself and towards the soldiers that died and sacrificed. It also reveals how important it is for the United States to remain one union, so the soldiers would not have died in vain.
Mary Todd Lincoln's widowed life is the subject of many psychological studies. Doudak describes her as someone who suffered tremendous loss and wanted to hold onto her family connections and find some peace of mind. Doudak wrote, "That (Mary Todd Lincoln) was welcome in the arms of the unliving says much of the state of human beings in the 19th century. That death was not merely a way to be at peace, but a way to offer peace to those that needed it." He sees her as a woman who used her belief in life after death to give her peace during her troubled later years.
Most of the book, "A Celebration of Life" is an almost poetic essay that recognizes what Lincoln's life meant. It reminds Readers that they could be an inspiration and stand up for equality and unity. Doudak writes, "That there is an ebb and flow and a push and pull says more about human beings than it does on Earth. That there are changes, perceptions, and dreams to fulfill only underpins our desire to maturate in this world. That we do live up to our responsibilities depends on how we choose to view our role as caretakers."
Doudak's writings suggest that the many struggles today reveal that division is still rampant. We can come together as a union when we see each other as equals and express our highest human traits like kindness, understanding, and empathy.
History judges those who made changes and sacrifices for others. That is the legacy that people like Abraham Lincoln stood for. That there are certain causes and people that will sacrifice everything for and freedom, unity, and equality are among the most important.
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